Improvement in end-gates for wagons



1.1:.BAIRD el M. MILLER.

4 End-Gates for Wagons. No, 144,429, Parenfed N0v.11,18731 mgl-.1.2" TK) Witnesses: i 4,/ mr:

` j /f 0;/ /2 ai 774/723/ '5 Anurney MAMO UNITED STATES PATENT CEEIGE.

JOSEPH O. BAIRD AND MERRITT MILLER, OF HEATON, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN END-GATES FOR WAGONS.

` Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 144,429, datedNovember 11, 1873; application led August 30, 1873.

To all whom t may concern.:

Be it known that we, J osEPn C. BAIRD and MERRITT MILLER, of Heaton, inthe county of Lee and State of Illinois7 have invented a new andImproved End-Gate for Vagon-Boxes, of which the following is aspeeiiication:

Our invention is an improvement in devices for securing end boards orgates of wagonboxes; and consists, chiefly, in a lever pivoted to thegate by a link or bar, and having, at one end, claws or hooks for takinginto notches in one ofthe side boards, and at the other end a slot toreceive a staple which projects from the gate, all as hereinafterdescribed.

Figure l is a top view of a wagon-box with our improved end-gateattached, two of the corners of the box being sectioned to show thefastening clearly. Fig. 2 is a rear end elevation of the boX, and Fig. 3is front end elevation.

A and B are the side boards of the box, and C is the end-gate. The sideC has two cleats, D and E, for holding one end of the end-gate, the sameas ordinary boxes; and, besides, the outside cleat, E, has a couple ofrecesses, F, into which a corresponding pair of lugs, Gr, on theend-gate catch when the gate is presented to the cleats end iirst, withthe other end a little in advance of the other side of the box,

so that the points of the lugs enter rst, and the end of the endgateswings in afterward by moving the opposite end of the gate back to itsplace against the cleat H on side B. I is the lever-catch, for fasteningthe other end. It is jointed to a short connecting-link, J, which ishinged to a shaft, L, of iron, embedded in the surface of the end-gate,and has hooked prongs M, which swing into notches N on the side B andengage behind metal plates O when the lever is swung backward againstthe end gate, and firmly secure the latter in place, when the lever isfastened by the hook l) and staple Q. The lugs G consist of strong metalprojections of a metal plate, It, embedded in the end-gate. The end-gatehas recesses T, into which the hooks M swing to clear the plate O, whenthe lever swings out, asat U, to release the end-gate.

Thus we secure the end-gate as firmly as it can be with the rodsheretofore used, but so that we can put it in and take it out much moreconveniently than with the rods; and we avoid making the end-gate in twoparts and jointing them together in the middle, as has been done insoine cases, but which is objectionable on account of weakening it.

S represents the front end-gate, which, not being required to be takenout often, may be fastened by the rods T in the common way.

Having thus described our invention, We claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent- The end-gate O, provided with the lugs G atone end and engaged between the cleats D E,

mark

J oHN GoNKLiN.

